Chapter 1824: New Balance What did Rowan know about Death, the Beast of Final Rest? Without thinking about it for long, the first thought that entered his mind was... thief. Yes, thief. Rowan was born with dominion over the soul; it was his birthright and the power he had earned by his efforts over the years. Over the years, he had claimed a lot of soul, and their Origin remained with him; their essence and energy were seen as the fair exchange for safeguarding the most precious part of an individual’s life. After learning and understanding that all the Soul Origins under the dominion he controlled went to him, Rowan had carried out his task with all the importance a position like that necessitated. It was upon his death that he had figured out that a part of the souls that died within Reality and all Realities were taken by Death. Its crows patrolled throughout Limbo, and they harvested every soul that was not nailed down. Rowan did not pursue this investigation for long when he discovered it. He recognized that he was far too weak to question the methods used by Death, and like all the powerful entities Rowan could not challenge, he began to study this entity. The first conversation he had with Death, this entity had been studying him, but Rowan was also studying Death; every word he said, every phrase, his intonation —everything was carefully examined to pick out even the smallest detail. Rowan had questioned Death about the Primordials. He had wondered why such ravenous jackals were left to consume all life in Limbo with little to no consequences, and Death had replied that everything came to him in the end, and it did not matter if they were Primordials; in the end, one day they shall also come into his embrace. Its words had been, "What they want does not matter. You mistake the actor for the stage. They slaughter, I observe. They rage, I wait. Even Primordials tire, even the greatest dealers of destruction falter. When their fire gutters out, I will be the silence that follows. This is inevitable." Rowan had not believed those words; he knew of the virulent appetites of the Primordials, and for such supreme entities, it was impossible for them to lie down and die when the feast was over. They were evil, yes, but the Primordials were not mindless. If Rowan could recognize that one day in the future, when all Realities had fallen, then their fate would be to meet Death at the end... an entity that they had spent countless eternities feeding. Rowan had no way to counter the words of Death, not at that moment. He had many thoughts that would invalidate the words from this entity, but he chose to remain silent and watch. He was the Will of Truth, and one thing he knew about truth was that it was inevitable. Still, the Seed of wariness had been planted in Rowan’s heart, and he began to shift Death towards the lens of enemy. To test the profile that Rowan was making for Death, he offered up one of his greatest secrets, which was the layers of his Dimensional Flesh. Rowan was able to seed multiple Origins in his flesh, thereby he could become the first Primordial with multiple Origins, and it was all due to the talents of his dimensional flesh and his inheritance as a Living Reality. Giving Death the option to take one part of his dimension was equal to Rowan relinquishing a part of himself to Death. Rowan had a hint of what he was offering to this entity; in essence, he was telling Death he could make it a Primordial. The Beast of Final Rest could have another identity, the Primordial of Death. If Death had accepted, Rowan would be losing one part of himself forever... but Death did not. Rowan had offered this entity a chance to have an Avatar with the power of a Primordial, and coupled with the dimension controlled by the Beast of Final Rest, this Primordial of Death would become extremely powerful when it began feeding on the Origin of Death that had polluted Limbo. However, Death rejected Rowan. There should have been no reason for his rejection, but it did, and that drove Rowan’s profile towards an inevitable conclusion. When Primordials fed on a Reality, they could harvest only the essence that was linked to their Origin; the rest was wasted. The seven Primordials worked together to feed on a single Reality because it was far more economical to do so. Each of them would take what they needed from the Reality, and what was left was dispersed into Limbo, where it was most likely suppressed under the unrelenting tide of corruption caused by the death of so many Realities. This was the destination of so many Origin Force, but the Origin of Death was unique. From understanding Eosah and her journey from her birth to her death. The Origin of Death was instinctively rejected by all Reality, and this made the concept of Death inside Eosah to be non-existent. Death only entered Reality when her children peered outside the Nothingness and saw Limbo, thereby understanding and bringing the concept of Death into Reality. What this meant to Rowan was that the Origin of Death was not being willfully collected by any Reality, and one of the methods that Primordials infiltrated any Reality was to introduce the concept of Death into that Reality. With his present level, he could see that one of the poisons that was transforming Limbo into an environment of horror was the dense energy of Death that had filled it. So much Origins of Death was floating around that it was almost impossible to detect it. Why would Death reject this potent source of power? Rowan could imagine that if a Primordial of Death were to be born, then the power they would gain from just draining all the Origins of Death lying around since the Primordials started butchering Realities would make them one of the most powerful beings in all existence. Death rejected that deal and gave Rowan another. It said that if Rowan were willing to continue his battle against the Primordials, it would aid him in shielding the karma of their demise by consuming it... that was its only request. Before meeting Death, Rowan had been looking for ways to bear the karma of killing a Primordial. His entire experiment with the New Light and the Primordial Beasts was to find methods of holding Reality in place while he replaced the pillars. Rowan had been skeptical of Death’s intention, but he allowed it to happen. Using Noctis as a channel to Reality, he began feeding Death all the Karma of the Primordial’s passing, and as he did, he was looking for the reasons why Death would choose this option instead of selecting the option of being a Primordial of Death... Now he knew the reason. Death was dying... and becoming a Primordial of Death would not save it. It had to become more. The acts of the Primordials destroying Realities did not mean Death could eat without consequences. The methods used by Primordials when they fed on Realities were similar to a poisonous creature killing its prey and eating what it wanted before moving on. The remnants of those prey reach Death, but their poison remains inside them. Death took all those souls, and he also took their poison, and at first, it did not bother this entity; it even reveled in an existence where it could feast without holding back... But its greed was its undoing. The Primordials might fall in the future, but it was unknown who would be the first to perish. Death hated the Primordials as much as it needed them, and there was no way to change this balance... until Rowan arrived.